Travel Tuesdays With Quilt: Japanese Wonderland
It’s holiday season and if you haven’t already planned your winter vacation, we have a recommendation for you — Japan. The land of the rising sun, cherry blossoms, bullet trains, and ramen; Japan may not be a budget destination, but it features on every wanderlust traveler’s bucket list!
Winter is a great time to visit Japan to experience its gorgeous hot springs amidst snow-clad landscapes, heart-warming comfort foods, cozy izakayas, and fewer crowds. Using our AI tool, Sphere, we looked at social media content and search behavior related to travel in Japan to curate a list of unique experiences that you can enjoy this December.
Explore Kyoto’s 400-year-old kitchen
Nishiki Market (or Nishiki Ichiba in Japanese) in Kyoto is the ultimate paradise for food lovers. It is the most searched place with a Google search rate of 182% in the last quarter and boasts of endless food stalls, delicious food, hearty produce, and a lot of history. It is Kyoto’s oldest kitchen and is the best place to experience Japanese cuisine in all its variety. Try the tako tamago (baby octopus with a quail’s egg inside its head), mochi, goma dango (sesame dumplings), and satsuma age (fish cakes), among other things. Open from 10 AM to 6 PM every day of the week (though on Sundays some stalls are shut), it’s one place in Japan you don’t want to miss.
Visit the fluffiest place on earth
The Miyagi Zao Fox Village in Shiroishi isn’t called ‘the fluffiest place on earth’ without reason. It’s an 18,000 square feet forest reserve full of over 200 free-roaming wild foxes. This includes 6 breeds: the rare silver fox, arctic fox, Japanese red fox, cross fox, platinum fox, and platinum gold fox. In autumn and winter they’re at their fluffiest best, perfect for travelers seeking ‘fluffy’ and ‘cuddly’ experiences that offer warmth in the cold. Foxes or ‘kitsune‘ also happen to be popular subjects in Japanese mythology and folklore, where they’re commonly depicted as intelligent creatures that possess magical abilities and often transform into human beings.
Experience the Sapporo Snow Festival
The Sapporo Snow Festival takes place in February every year and features fascinating snow and ice sculptures you will ever see (including castles, Pikachu, the Buddha, historical Samurai warriors, and Star Wars characters). It is the biggest snow festival in Japan and dates back to 1950! Celebrated over a span of a week, Odori Park, Susukino, and Tsudome are the main sites of the festival.
Chill with wild monkeys
One of Japan’s most unique and memorable winter experiences is watching wild macaques bathe in hot springs! The Jigokudani Wild Monkey Park in Nagano is the perfect place to witness this as Japanese Macaques aren’t typically used to subzero temperatures and get into the onsen to beat the cold.
Wind down at a cozy izakaya
Izakayas are a big part of Japanese (drinking) culture and a quintessential experience for anyone curious about Japanese nightlife. A popular post-work drinking spot, its literal meaning is ‘stay saké shop’ — that is, a place where you can stay and drink. These Japanese-style bars offer food that goes well with alcohol, such as gyoza, edamame, sushi, and yakitori. The drinks typically consist of Japanese draft beers, chūhai, cold and warm saké, sour spirits, umeshu (plum wine), and whiskey highball.
Izakayas are located in alleys and the entrance is marked with red or white lanterns. You can expect counter seating and shared dishes, making the overall ambiance fun and cozy experience — perfect for a winter evening. Some of the best izakayas in Tokyo are Uoshin, Totogen Shinsen, Sasagin, Rokunen Yon-kumi, and Torikizoku. For a more authentic experience, go with locals.
Key takeaways for hospitality brands
The United States of America, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Canada, and Australia are the top markets for inbound travelers visiting Japan (based on data from the last few quarters). Travelers from these countries are seeking escape and relaxation, and the top activities they’re interested in are cruises, shopping, massage and spa experiences, religious sites, and historic architecture.
The most common searches from international travelers are regarding visa requirements, while domestic travelers are scouting for travel packages and insurance. Tawaramoto is the most searched town in Japan with a search rate of 603%, while Hayashima is the most searched prefecture with a search rate of 45% in the previous quarter.
Whether it’s international travelers or domestic travelers, people are increasingly attracted to unique cultural experiences that are relaxing but also fulfilling, and the experiences highlighted in this blog capture this trend. Based on these insights, we asked our AI content creator, Create, to come up with some ads for travel companies. Here’s a sample of the creatives it generated:
Want to test our AI tools for more travel insights? Write to us at anurag.banerjee@quilt.ai.
